The Interesting and Most Illuminous Life of Alison Kim
by ficriel
Summary: 14-year old Alison Kim meets the love of her life. But every time she tries to get closer, her horrible friends Eunice, Anya, and Shelly ruin everything. Will she ever get to meet him? Or possibly...do other things?
1. Part 1 Chapter 1

Alison groaned. It was 3:07 already, and Vincent had said he would be here by 3:00. Alison reached for her phone to send him an angry text. As she was typing, the door swung open and in came Vincent, his hair poofy, and looking, as usual, a bit confused.

What had she been thinking? A study meet-up at T4 with _Vincent_? Even if they were just meeting to work on their project for science, it seemed awfully like a _date._ At least Vincent arranged it, so it wasn't like she asked him out. Wait, did that mean that technically _he_ asked _her_ out? Alison realized she had been staring at Vincent, and she quickly looked away. She busied herself with moving the supplies for the project around on the table in front of her. Vincent walked towards her table. He sat down across from her, sitting on the very edge of his chair as if ready for a quick escape.

"Uh, hi," he said, looking down at the table with art supplies strewn across it.

"Hi," Alison replied, hoping that he didn't hear the shakiness in her voice.

"I'm gonna go get something," he told her, gesturing vaguely towards the line of people ordering their teas. "Do you, uh, want anything?"

Alison was about to say no, but felt that would be impolite.

"I'd like a passion fruit green tea with lychee, and, um, no boba." It was too dangerous a time to risk choking on boba. Especially with someone around.

Vincent nodded, and walked towards the ordering counter. He came back holding two cups with straws. Alison noticed the little bobas at the bottom of her cup, and frowned, but Vincent was too busy slurping on his tea (in a very unmanly way) to notice.

"So," she asked him over the sound of gulping, "what should we do first?"

Vincent looked up at her, finally releasing his tea.

"We're done with the writing already, so do you want to do the drawings?"

"Sure." Alison agreed, wishing the conversation would be less awkward. Why did he have to make this so hard? She looked back at their poster, and started to copy rough outlines from the Science textbook. Vincent just sat, looking out the window. Alison added some pusheens to the sketches, wondering how she would get through another 20 minutes like this. Vincent wasn't even doing anything productive at all!

Unable to stand it any further, Alison looked over at Vincent, who seemed transfixed by some pigeons in the parking lot. "I finished the drawings, now you can do the coloring." Couldn't the ugly lump even make an _effort_ to talk? The pigeons outside weren't _that_ exciting. At least not to her. Vincent picked up the colored pencils and began to distress the paper with his lack of artistic ability. Alison almost groaned. There was no way she was getting a good grade on this project.

Vincent's stomach rumbled. He gave her an apologetic look. Alison decided to take pity on him, and she reached into her backpack to pull out one of the 3 fig bars she had never eaten. Wait. Was he really that bad? Yes. Yes, he was. The lump wouldn't talk, was staring at things outside instead of working, and when he did work, it was horrible. She threw it on the table in front of Vincent.

"There. I don't like those anyway." she told him.

"Why?" he asked while coloring over the pusheens.

"I don't think you want to know why."

Vincent unwrapped the fig bar. Alison waited until he had the whole fig bar in his mouth, and then she began to read aloud from the online article on her phone.

"You know that flowers are pollinated by bees, which fly from flower to flower. Figs, however, are inverted flowers, so the pollinators, in this case, fig wasps, have to crawl inside the fig. The fig wasp actually lays eggs inside the fig, and the baby wasps hatch inside the fruit. The surviving females lay their eggs in another fig, pollinating the flower, and starting the cycle over again. So yes, there may be dead wasps in figs. However-"

A loud retching sound prevented Alison from continuing. Vincent was choking on the fig bar, frantically reaching for a napkin to spit it out. Alison laughed.

"But that can't be true," Vincent insisted after he had found the napkins. "It didn't feel like I ate a wasp."

"Have you eaten wasps before?"

"Good point," he admitted, glaring at her.

"That was revenge." Alison said.

"What did I do?"

"You didn't color the pusheens."

"There weren't any pusheens."

"You meanie poo! The pusheens are right there!" Alison pointed to the five pusheens right under the title.

"I thought those were dots."

"!"

"Okay, okay. Fine. I'm sorry. Just my luck I end up with a fig-fearing, pusheen-obsessed maniac as a partner for Science."

Alison frowned at him over her tea. She wanted to take a dainty sip, but she really didn't want to embarrass herself by choking on boba.

"Is there something wrong with your tea?" Vincent asked, ever the innocent gentleman. The poopyhead. He probably noticed and asked for boba just to annoy her.

"Nope. Just perfect." Alison said sweetly, poking at the bobas in her tea with her straw. Two can play at that game. She made sure her straw was away from the patches of boba and took a long sip.

"Good. I would _never_ want you to be unhappy," he told her, his tone practically dripping with sarcasm.

"It's nice to know you care about me."

Vincent's eyes shot up to hers, and Alison found herself unable to look away as she realized the implications of what she had said. What had she been thinking? No, she hadn't been thinking. Alison looked back down at the science project and began to color in the spots Vincent had forgotten to distress, trying hard to conceal what she was sure was a blush.

"Like anyone's ever going to care about you." Vincent snorted, trying to salvage their conversation with some casual insults. It was the wrong thing to say.

Alison got up and dumped all her supplies in her bag. She had been stupid. So completely, indescribably _stupid._ She roughly stuffed the poster into Vincent's hands and walked towards the door, her back to him.

"Get it done by Monday," she said stiffly without turning around. Alison pulled open the door and stalked out, leaving Vincent staring at an empty seat and a cup of milk tea.


	2. Part 1 Chapter 2

Alison sat on her bed in her room, looking at the ceiling. So. Vincent didn't care about her. It didn't matter, really. He hadn't looked like he had cared anyway. But Vincent had always been one to hide his emotions.

Had it been a bad idea to walk out of T4? After all, it wasn't like Vincent's insults were anything new, they were a daily occurrence on hangouts. But it had been different somehow. To hear it from him. She let out an annoyed sigh. She might have just destroyed all her chances with him, not to mention making the situation completely awkward. That small hope that she hadn't told her friends, that Vincent might like her back, was dead.


	3. Part 1 Chapter 3

Alison took her phone out of her bag and put it into her pocket. She was waiting outside Shelly's last period class. Today was the day they were walking to Chadbourne together with Eunice and Anya. Their parents had finally agreed that every other Friday, they could go to meet their elementary school teachers together. It had been 6 days since she last saw Vincent, and she had stayed away from all chats with him in it in an effort to avoid conversation.

Shelly emerged from Ms Robinson's classroom.

"Where's Anya?" she asked.

"She hasn't come out yet."

They walked towards Anya's classroom door, and Alison's phone vibrated. She pulled it out and read the message on top. Under the little Messages icon was a text from Vincent.

 _You walk to your car, right?_

Alison debated whether to respond or not. The sooner she could forget about the T4 thing, the better, she decided.

 _Yeah,_ she typed back.

 _I'm walking to Chadbourne today to drop off something for Mr Anton._

 _Ok,_ Alison responded.

 _Can we walk together?_

Alison inhaled sharply. She looked up. Anya had come out of her class, and she and Shelly were staring at Alison.

"Hi," Shelly said.

"Tangy mermaids." Anya announced.

Alison was saved from trying to respond to that by Eunice's sudden appearance.

"You poos! You said you'd wait by the band room!"

"Well, I'm sorry, but it takes time to actually get out of a classroom. Also Anya and Shelly take too long." Alison replied, getting back to her normal sassy self.

"Well we're here now, so we should get going." Shelly told her.

Anya smiled deviously. Shelly's locker was close to Room 34, the band room.

"Sheep baa!" Eunice interjected randomly.

"Moo roll!" Shelly added.

" _Poo_ roll!" Alison said, her eyes widening. "Chengqi's a poo roll!"

They started to walk towards Room 34.

Alison let the other three go ahead, and glanced down at her phone. The text was still there. Alison mentally rolled her eyes. Of course it was still there. Had she expected it to dissapear? Her life (unfortunately) wasn't some crazy fiction movie.

But he really had asked her.

Alison replied to his question, and hurried to catch up with the group.

Eunice, Anya, and Shelly peered out from behind a bush, burdened with backpacks and a flute. There was Alison, walking towards Shelly's locker, no, past it, towards _Vincent's_ locker. And there, coming out of the band room was Vincent. He looked around to make sure no one was watching, then said something quickly to Alison and began to walk away. Alison nodded and walked in the opposite direction.

The three girls behind the bush exchanged looks. After they had gone to the band room to collect the instruments, Alison had been texting on her phone. Then she said that she had to stay after school for an English project and hurried off. As this was suspicious behavior, Shelly, Anya, and Eunice had followed her.

Eunice grabbed the other two girls and pulled them out of the bush behind the nearest 'hiding' spot: another row of lockers. Anya suggested that they split up. Shelly went to the left, Eunice to the right, and Anya right behind Alison. Soon, Alison had left Hopkins and was walking past the car pick-up loops. There, she was approached by a tall boy. Vincent. He and Alison had a conversation, an actual _conversation_ in _real life._ They waited there for five minutes, then began to walk along Driscoll Road, taking a turn by a sign saying Chiltern. Anya and Eunice had a hard time being discreet with their rolling backpacks, but Alison seemed to be too busy talking to notice.  
So. Alison had dropped out of their 'walk to Chadbourne together' plan because she had gotten a better offer from Vincent. Then again, the friends would be walking together every other Friday, so there would be other times. It still stung that Alison had chosen Vincent over them.

The three girls met behind a rather wide tree.

"Backpacks?" Shelly asked.

"We can put them in the library, and hope no one steals them," Eunice answered.

"No one would want to steal backpacks," Anya put in. "As far as we know..."

The girls fast-walked to the library. (Mr. Conbae was putting the stand racks inside, and could be watching.) Ms. Fajilan wasn't inside. A paper on the door said the library closed at 3:30. Eunice and Anya rolled their backpacks into a corner, and Shelly dumped hers on a chair. Eunice and Shelly were halfway to the door when they noticed Anya wasn't with them. They looked around, and spotted the missing puffin muffin behind the librarian's desk. She held up a handful of Post-its. Eunice sprinted over to the counter, climbing over tables and chairs in her way.

"POSTTTT-ITTSSSSS!"

Shelly pretended not to care, but failed when she saw the reams of copy paper.

Eunice grabbed as many small stationary items as she could, and began to shovel them into her bag. Shelly hurriedly stuffed stacks of colored copy paper between her binders in her own backpack. Anya herself had gotten hold of a jar of candy. They quickly put the candy into their pockets to eat on the go, and left the library, running.

In the corner of the library, after the girls had left, a book slid down to reveal the face of none other than Chengqi Lii, who had been silently watching the whole time.


	4. Part 1 Chapter 4

"Come on, hurry up, you noodles!" Eunice screamed, as they sprinted through the grass, "we have to find them!"

"Ugh," groaned Shelly, as she tried to keep running. Perhaps As they stopped for breath, they saw Alison and Vincent just about to cross the bridge towards Chadbourne.

"So they ARE going to Chadbourne," Anya exclaimed.

"Come on, we have to be subtle," said Shelly with exasperation.

"Ok!" Eunice exclaimed happily. Shelly didn't notice Eunice and Anya giggling, until she heard the Pink Panther song and a lot of snorting. Shelly tried to be mature, but she couldn't help it and burst out in laughter.

"Shhhh… We have to be subtle," Anya said. Shelly rolled her eyes. Like that would ever happen.

"Okie, let's follow them now, without the sound effects," said Shelly.

"HEHEHEHEHEH! STALKING SHEEP!" screamed Eunice loudly.

"What the poo?" asked Alison.

"Uh, ok," Vincent said looking around. He could see that this was not a good place to be. "Alison, I didn't finish the project, so let's meet at T4 again."

" _Again?_ " said Eunice disbelievingly. "Alison, you guys met before and you didn't tell us? Well thanks" She rolled her eyes. Vincent tried to silently back away, but stopped under Alison's icy gaze.

"Where do you think _you're_ going?" Alison asked him. "You're the one who told them we were meeting."

Vincent looked at her.

"I asked you if you wanted to walk with me. You said yes. You're the one who decided to meet.

"That isn't even relevant!" Alison half-yelled.

Anya coughed loudly.

"Sorry to distract you from your boyfriend Vicky-poo, but-"

"He is not my boyfriend. Will you just shut up?"

At that, Vincent turned around and left the scene running.

Shelly collapsed over giggling at the sight of Vincent's retreating rump.

Eunice exclaimed "POOO ROLL!"

"He's not your boyfriend 'cus he's _too dense to realize that he likes you._ "

"Just stop it, okay? He's not thickheaded or stupid. He's actually really nice and funny when you get to know him."

"I thought you were just arguing with him, why are you defending him now?

"UGH!" Alison turned and walked away quickly, going to the one person who might give her consolation. She ran as soon as she was out of her friends' eyesight, wiping the tears blurring her vision.


	5. Part 2 Chapter 1

Alison woke up feeling rather mad at herself. How could she have let them catch her? It was the dumbest thing ever. Eunice wasn't even that good at stalking. Plus, he had been about to confess. She knew it. And now her chance was ruined. Blown away completely, like the fluff on a dandelion. She was going to give it to them tomorrow, whether they liked it or not. Probably not. She went to school the next day and met up with Shelly.

"Let's go put our flutes away," she said through gritted teeth, "And when Eunice and Anya come, we need to have a…" she paused. "A talk."

"What kind of talk?" Shelly asked.

"A talk. That's all you need to know, anyway."

"But I can't talk. Not now anyway. Anya trashed my locker again." Shelly said glumly. "What a poo."

"I. Don't. Care." Alison said.

"Is this 'talk' about Chengqi?"

"No."

"Pusheen?"

"Shut up."

"Eunice or Anya?"  
"Yes. And no." Shelly suddenly realized. Of course.

"Vincent?"

" _Just shut up!"_

"Sheesh, ok, ok."

They went to put their flutes away, and came out, finding Anya opening the gym door, looking cold.

"We had to run the mile," she explained. "Taylor's a poo."

"To you, everyone's a poo." Alison remarked angrily.

"Can I help it if everyone is?" She asked. "Eunice is late."

"NOPE! MOOOOO ROOOLLS! THE PART-EEE HAS ARRIVED!" Eunice said, popping up behind Alison.

"What the-" Alison turned behind. "Now. Let's have our little… talk."

"What talk?" Eunice asked.  
"Not again…" sighed Alison. Suddenly, the bell rang. "Are you joking?" Alison groaned.

"No, I'm not," responded Anya seriously.

"Well, bye, You idiots." Alison said. As soon as Alison left, Eunice immediately started talking.

"So their ship name would be Alicent! But I wish she told us that they had met at T4."

"Well," Shelly frowned, "That's classical Alison so there isn't really anything we can do about it."

"True," nodded Anya.

"Okie, bye, I gotta go to English," said Eunice.

"Room 13, Mrs. Marine's class." Anya replied matter-of-factly. She and Shelly had been stalking Eunice for a long time.

"Gonna draw some Alicent pusheens for the occasion!"

"Me too!"

"Wait, no. Don't ruin Pusheen by putting Vincent's face on her." Anya replied seriously.

"Nope. In an attempt to fix Vincent, I would put _Pusheen's_ face on _him_."


	6. Part 2 Chapter 2

Alison frowned. She couldn't still couldn't believe that they had actually stalked her and Vincent. She had known Anya's stalking skills, but Shelly was below acceptable, and Eunice tried to blend in with lockers. It was shameful to be stalked by someone who's best hiding place was a bush. And Shelly, that poo. She hadn't warned Alison, or even tried to help her. Anyways, where were those crazy midgets? They said they would meet at the tree.

"BOOOO!" screamed Eunice from behind her.

"Very scary, Eunice, very scary." Alison rolled her eyes. Eunice was so loud and annoying, and she had to ruin everything.

"MOOOO ROLLS!" yelled Shelly. Ugh, and Shelly too.

"Lol. Where's Anya? We need to talk!"

"LOL?" said Anya. "Vincentious MERMAIDDDSSS."

"Ugh, What we need to talk about is HIM!" yelled Alison.

"I WAS," Anya stated. "But you don't know what Vincentious merm-"

"Why are you so annoyed anyway?" interrupted Shelly.

"I'm annoyed because you HAD to stalk us and ruin EVERYTHING!"

"Jeez, can you calm down? Look Vincy's right there!" Eunice rolled her eyes. Eunice grabbed Alison's arm and dragged her towards Vincent, who unsurprisingly wasn't alone. "HIIII Vincent! YOUR TRUE LOVE SAYS HI!" screamed Eunice.

"Run!" Shelly yelled. "Before Alison chops off our heads!" The three ran away as fast as they could. Alison let out a long, annoyed sigh. Her friends were so immature.

"Uh, Alison?" Vincent asked.

Oh shoot. He must have heard that. Eunice, that-that=^..^=ugh, she didn't have enough words.

"Did you finish the project?" Alison asked him, trying to steer the conversation into the safe zone. Academics.

"Kind of. You can take it home today if you want." Vincent replied.

"YO!" Yelled Chengqi, who was walking with Vincent. "Hurry up!"

"Bye, gotta go." Vincent said. Alison stared. Was he… _blushing_? He turned away before she could look.

"AWWW," Eunice and Anya said in unison, talking to Alison when Vincent was out of sight. "You're blushing." Alison suddenly realized she was blushing, and quickly stammered:

"No… no I'm not- I'm just, uh, super mad at you!" she said, trying to make her voice angry.

"Sure." Shelly said.

Alison noticed Vincent was strolling back and in a rush, obviously still looking as elegant and perfect as possible with that patch of black grass for hair.

"Hey, uh… do you want to meet again for the project? There's extra credit," he remarked, pointing at his phone. "I know your mom is in Korea so if your Dad's ok with it…"

"She doesn't have a dad," remarked Anya.

"She has a stepfather," added Shelly. "Alison says she never saw her long lost dad."

"Who was previously a sailor," Eunice said, gazing off into the horizon.

"And left her a gift of a lone A-gel," said Anya, looking sad.

"Before he sunk at sea." Eunice finished.

"What?" Vincent asked.

 _Why did they have to ruin EVERYTHING?_ Alison thought. _That lie was so old..._ Every time Vincent tried to talk to her, they just HAD to interrupt with something random. Well, tomorrow was an early day, so maybe she could meet with Vincent. The way her luck was going now, he'd probably say no. The bell rang.

"Well, bye Vincent. See you later." She grabbed Shelly and Anya by the hoods of their jackets and dragged them away. She tried to drag Eunice but she had no hood.

"You little-"

"We're giving you the cold treatment," Eunice replied. "Don't expect us to talk to you anytime soon. We've had enough of that attitude."

Anya and Shelly pulled their hoods out of Alison's grasp and walked away.


	7. Part 2 Chapter 3

Alison flopped on her bed, staring at the ceiling. Why did her friends have to be so irritating? They had messed up her walk with Vincent, and _they_ were mad at _her._ So what if she hadn't told them. She had the right to keep somethings to herself. Alison sat up on her bed. She looked at her laptop which was open and sitting on her desk from when she had been chatting with Eunice, Shelly, and Anya. Alison was too lazy to get her laptop. After five minutes, she got up and lugged her laptop onto her lap. Alison scrolled down her Chats list. She didn't feel like insulting Darren or Kevin, which was new. Before, she was always in the mood for some roasting. She saw a little green bubble next to Chengqi's name. No. Just no. The very last thing she needed now was egg. She went onto Vincent's chat.

Alison: Hi

U prob aren't there

I'm talking to an empty chat

:)

Vincent: Hi

Need help

History

Alison: Im too lazy

Vincent: Hey

I stayed up with u for ur project

Alison: Eh

Fine

We need to finish the poster

Vincent: O

Right

Same place, Wednesday ?

Alison: K

Is 3 ok

Vincent: sure c u there :d

You're nicer than my other friends

Alison smiled. Maybe today wasn't that bad after all.

She slept very peacefully that night.


	8. Part 2 Chapter 4

Alison yawned and looked at her pink alarm clock. It was already 7:30? She was so tired. Next to her, her phone vibrated. _We r meeting today right?_ She grabbed her phone. _Yeah. Need a ride?_ She hesitated before sending it. Should she really ask? That would be awkward. Quickly, she deleted the sentence and retyped it. _Okie, c u there :)_ Really? A smiley face? She blushed unconsciously.

"Alison, time to get up!" called her Not-so-stepfather. Biscuit, surprisingly, was awake. He usually kept snoring until she had eaten breakfast. The fluffy doggy ran around Alison's bed, barking.

"Yah OK, jeez" replied Alison sarcastically. She got up and changed into her normal clothes. A cute hoodie and her jeans. She posed in front of the mirror, making sure she was perfect for her day of school.

After a hard day at school:

Alison pulled out her phone and checked her texts. There was a new message from Vincent. _Where are you?_ Why was he asking? _In front of the band room. Y?_ Why would he possibly care? _Lol just wondering also, do u need a ride 2 T4?_ But she really did need a ride because her grandma was taking Biscuit to the vet for his leg at 3. Again.

 _Ya actually,_ she typed back.

 _Sure, ill pick u up outside ur house 3, ok? Send me the address through email._

 _K, Thx_

Alison began to walk to her grandma's car.

It would be refreshing to have a meeting with Vincent after a tiring 4 and a half hours of being ignored. In the morning, Anya had been verbally spamming 'Vincentious Mermaids' with Shelly and Eunice. After a while of trying to get them to stop, Alison began to ignore them. At lunch, they stopped trying to talk to her and began to ignore her too. As much as she hated to admit it, lunch was lonely without the three. But she couldn't stop ignoring them. _They_ were being annoying to _her,_ so she shouldn't talk to them 'til they apologized. At least Vincent talked to her.

Alison had reached her car, so she pulled open the door and plopped down inside. After she had shut the door, she took off her backpack and put on her seatbelt, with her phone and flute on her lap. She went to hangouts, then changed her mind. Her friends would just ignore her again. Alison sighed. After her car had pulled into her driveway, she lugged her stuff inside and found some food in the kitchen. She brought it to her room and started to read a book. She smiled. Books would always be there, no matter what.


	9. Part 2 Chapter 5

There was a knock at the door. Vincent was here. She grabbed her folder and pencil box, stopped to look at the mirror and fix her hair, which looked like Stormy ontop of her head, and then opened the door.

"Hi." Alison smiled, giving Vincent a little wave.

"Uh… Hi," Vincent awkwardly replied. The stared at each other without saying anything. Alison noticed he had actually made an attempt to tame his hair.

"So let's go," Alison said. Never mind, a meeting with Vincent wouldn't be so refreshing after all.

"Uh… OK," he responded. Alison walked to Vincent's mom's car, with Vincent close behind. Vincent reached for the car door to open in for Alison like a gentleman, but Alison had already opened it. Vincent put his hand on the door frame instead. He shut the door behind Alison, and walked around the back of the car to his seat.

The drive was horrible at worst, and bearable at best. Vincent's Mom and Alison had a short conversation about their project and what they were doing in class. Vincent himself refused to talk.

Soon, the nightmare ride was over, and Vincent and Alison got out of the car outside of T4. Vincent's mom told them she'd be back at 5, then left Alison alone with Vincent. They entered the tea shop, Vincent ordering the tea while Alison found a table. Vincent walked back to Alison's table.

"Ohhh!," Alison said, blushing at Vincent's kind gesture. "Passion fruit with lychee jelly and _no_ boba." She blushed. Her face was like a red tomato.

"I knew it was your favorite," Vincent said, smiling. Alison frowned.

"How did _you_ know? Have you been _stalking me?"_

"No, you told me."

"Did I?" Alison contorted her face into a weird expression.

"You tell me a lot of stuff on hangouts. Like your favorite food and stuff." Alison blushed. _Had she really confided_ that much _with him?_ Vincent must have sensed her embarrassment because he said:

"I'm cool with it. I've actually learned a lot about you. Which is…. good - I guess…." he stammered.

Alison blushed, because she knew why he was stammering.

"Because we're partners and we should - work well together," he finally finished.

It took an hour for Alison and Vincent to finish both the 4 sentence paragraph and 5 sentence extra credit because they kept talking. Alison found it quite enjoyable. _It was like talking to a close friend and you were talking about something you both like…_ Alison thought. _It's relatable._

Alison gasped. _Close friend… Boyfrie-_

She couldn't bring herself to think it.

Alison opened up her computer to research a bit on phase changes. She saw the Hangouts tab was open, and that there were 2 chats that were active.

Shelly: Its sorta weird without Alison, but I guess we r better off without her

Anya: I mean she has recently been a big poo roll:

Eunice: she was super salty at school today too like such a uncultured asian noodle

Anya: And she ships us too so she can't get mad at Vicriel

Shelly: :( yah thats true cough cough Shellnav cough cough

Eunice: xD cough cough Jerrice cough cough

Anya: lolololol cough cough SathvAnya cough cough

Shelly: She wasn't that good of a friend anyway she always got mad

Eunice: IKR! She always started stupid arguments anyways

Anya: I blocked her :)

Eunice: Lol oh shoot shes in this chat

Shelly: oops

Anya: i think she saw all of this

Shelly: Watever, idc, she's all salty and mean, not like _our_ Alison from last year

Eunice: ikr!

Anya: it's all Vincent's fault anyways

Shelly: lol that's so tru i mean after she started liking him, she got all mean

Alison ripped her eyes off the chat that was tearing down her life text by text. She opened a new tab. Alison quickly googled a few terms from the histrytextbook, trying to keep herself together. How could they do that? She thought they would be friends forever. And now they were saying this?

What had happened to the close friendships of elementary school. Just for this stupid crush of hers, everything was ruined. Was it a choice? Her friends or Vincent? And had she chosen wrong? Who meant more to her?

"Alison? Did you get the definitions yet?" Vincent asked her, stupidly oblivious to what was happening.

"... Yah," Alison responded, trying to keep her eyes from tearing up.

"I'm going to go to the bathroom," Alison told him, her voice quivering. She got up and started to walked away.

Vincent was too dense to notice.


	10. Part 2 Chapter 6

Alison was finally once more capable of rational thought. Or at least half-way rational.

 _Fine. If they're going to be mean to me and ruin_ my life, _they better know who they're messing with. I'll give them the cold shoulder, too._

She got out of the bathroom and walked slowly over to the table where Vincent was sitting. She slid a chair out and sat. After about twenty minutes, Vincent looked up.

"Hey, uh Alison?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you - um… going to the social?"

 _Was he asking her out?_

Alison calmed down.

"Yeah… why?"

"Do you wanna go together?"

Alison's heart lept. How would she say yes, without confessing?

"Yes," she said quietly, looking down at the table. "It would be nice to go to the social together...as friends."

Vincent looked at Alison. _Wow. She's so perfect_. Vincent thought.

He snapped out of his trance.

"Thanks," he said, "Meet me in the dance room at 4:00." He said. "It's in the Gym," he added, as if Alison didn't know.

Alison smiled. He really was quite cute. But little did she know, that in hiding was their arch nemesis, Chengqi Li, grinning evilly behind a bush.

 _Vincent,_ she thought, answering her earlier question of ' _Her friends or Vincent?'_

 _At least he's nicer._

She was at home now, finally done with the history project. The social was in two days. She knew it was a Halloween Social, but she couldn't dress up in her silly cat costume. She needed to _impress_ Vincent. So she would put on her beautiful dress that she had planned to wear for Graduation last year. She could wear cat ears, too, so it would be a costume. The dress was very pretty, a black laced dress capable of making you fall for it.

 _Perfect for Vincent_ she thought, smiling.


	11. Part 3 Chapter 1

The social was at 4:00. Alison was putting on her earrings. She was looking absolutely flawless now, except for the stupid moles on her cheeks, but she planned to hide those with quality best-selling face-cream. No one knew this about Alison, but she actually had an extensive collection of makeup. She didn't use it, much, though. It was because she believed 'simplicity was the key.' She only used during parties, graduations, birthdays, and Halloween.

 _And dances with Vincy,_ she thought. She had begun to use his nickname just as he had began to use hers occasionally, Ari. _Or Ari-poo,_ she thought, smiling and thinking of her friends. She frowned at herself. It was getting increasingly harder to avoid them and to not think about the wonderful memories of them.

 _You can do it, though,_ Alison thought. 

_T H E M!_

She frowned even harder, then thought of Vincy and smiled. She hoped he would actually dress up well today, instead of having hobo clothes and crazy hair.

Alison got in the car with a bagful of candy. She wouldn't have to worry about carrying the bag at the social, though, because she would probably eat all the candy by the time she arrived. After the car had stopped, Alison straightened her dress and got out of the car, heading towards the Gym. Or as Vincent said it, the 'Dance Room'.

The gym was packed with people, some costumed, some not.

Just then, Alison saw Vincent. She actually blinked. Was that really Vincent? For once, he didn't look like he just popped out of bed. Vincent was dressed in a rather dashing black suit, accented with a tie patterned with hundred-dollar bills. A perfect mix of elegant and casual, and he was all hers for the evening. He was wearing a pirate hat on his neatly combed hair, probably to pass his suit off as a costume. Vincent spotted Alison, and tipped his hat to her.

"Hello, Milady," he said jokingly.

"Hey," Alison greeted with a nod of the head.

Vincent's cool facade vanished as he looked over his shoulder.

"I'm being stalked," he whispered to Alison urgently. "I can't tell who it is because of the costume."

Alison leaned in conspiratorially. "Where's the stalker right now?"

"I don't know. I think I lost them, whoever they , want to dance?"

Alison's heart almost leapt out of her rib cage. Nope. He had to work for it. Also, she wasn't sure about letting other people see her with Vincent.

"Maybe later," Alison smiled apologetically. "I'm dying of hunger."

Vincent, ever the perfect gentleman, went over to the refreshments with her, and began to hoard cups of soda. He turned to Alison to offer her one. She accepted, and waited for him to release the cup. Vincent froze, both his and Alison's hand on the cup, touching. Alison's face turned pale pink at the contact. Vincent was staring at a point somewhere over her left shoulder.

"The stalker," he muttered to her. "Don't turn around."

Alison yanked the cup from his hand and daintily took a sip. She casually twirled, showing off the skirt of her modest but form-fitting dress. Her back to Vincent, she could now see his 'stalker'.

Alison nearly collapsed in very unladylike laughter right there. The 'stalker' was the one and only Chengqi Li, dressed as a … dumpling. The boy was in a what looked like a rotund pillowcase, stuffed with fluff. At the top of the pillowcase, where the skin of the dumpling would be pinched together, was his head, poking out atop all his saggy glory.

Alison had to turn around to make sure he didn't see her laughing fit. Vincent watched, bemused, still clueless about the identity of the stalker dumpling.

Meanwhile, the dumpling was trying to reach for a cookie on the end of the snack table, but was prevented from reaching it by the considerable amount of wiggliness that was his dumpling-y stomach.

"You idiot, it's Chengqi!" Alison exclaimed with a lot of frantic hand-waving.

"Who?"

"Chengqi! Chengqi Li?"

"Ohh!"

Finally, a brain wave. Alison rolled her eyes. Vincent was so cute but could be so dense. Still, he was quite good-lookin' in his black suit.

He hurriedly led Alison away, not wanting their evening to be ruined by egginess. Well, he wasn't _that_ dense.

The rest of the evening passed in a blur. Vincent tried to eat the donuts off of the string, and insisted that Alison try too. Alison managed to pull her donut off of the string with her mouth, but was unable to catch it with her mouth. The donut ended up falling, and Alison tried to catch it. This resulted in the donut being knocked in Vincent's direction. He promptly ate it. Alison laughed at the surprised expression on Vincent's face as he chewed on the donut that had just whizzed into his mouth.

After they had submitted their guesses at the candy corn jar (the leadership people said the winners would be announced at the end of the social), Alison and Vincent went to watch the horror movie. It would have been a nice experience if not for the obnoxious people sitting behind them that kept giggling. Soon, Alison had had enough, and turned around to tell them so.

"Can you please-" Alison stopped abruptly as she saw who she was talking to.

Eunice, a witch, Anya, an angry bird, and Shelly, a vampire, were staring back at her and Vincent, wide-eyed.

Oh shoot. It just _had_ to be them. No wonder the giggling was so loud and unbearable.

"Sorry!" Eunice said quickly, nudging Anya, who nudged Shelly. The three looked up at her with their most innocent expressions.

Alison stiffly turned back to the movie. The three began to whisper behind her back. In response, Alison began to whisper to Vincent. Since she had nothing to whisper about, she started to tell him about the mysterious similarities between the main villain in the movie and Mr. Conbae. Vincent began to whisper back to her that she was overly paranoid about everything from fruits to band teachers. _Lol. She's too paranoid. It's funny._ Vincent thought. _Rather adorable, too._

"Let's leave," Anya whispered. "Clearly she's having too much fun with her Vincy-poo."

"Yea," Eunice agreed, and they quietly skulked away. They later hid in Room 20, Mrs. Alexander's room, where Eunice and Anya joyfully binged on the free candy she was giving out.

Shelly snatched the candy from their hands.

"YOU POO!" They yelled.

"Forget the candy," Shelly said, emptying a few boxes of Nerds into her mouth, ignoring their scandalized stares. "How can we ruin Alison's date?"


	12. Part 3 Chapter 2

Later, Anya had somehow gotten hold of a water gun 'From 's weapon stash' or so she claimed. She was extremely careful to avoid the teachers and talked to Shelly and Eunice in the bathroom.

"We can fill this with water and squirt it at Alison," suggested Eunice.

"There are too many people in the Gym," Shelly pointed out. "Someone would be a tattletale just like with that Butterfly Knife thingy."

"We could hide it somewhere…" Anya trailed off.

After about what seemed an hour of thinking,(and a few bathroom visits ) Anya thought of something.

"Eunice, that witch hat of yours has a hole in it…."

Eunice's face was the picture of pleasure. She was touched that _she,_ Eunice Zhang, would be the weapon-holder of this dastardly plan.

Anya and Shelly took one look at her expression and looked at each other. Maybe giving the gun to Eunice wasn't that smart. Then again, Anya would use it to take everyone hostage and demand they give her their candy, and Shelley would use it in 'self defense' and drench Chengqi. Neither of these possibilities were terrible, but then there would be no ammo to ruin Alison's romance. The three girls headed back towards the room with the movie, Eunice proudly wearing the water gun in her hat. They moved in the shadows, but then realized that just made them look overly suspicious. They quickly stepped out of the shadows and casually strolled to the door of the movie room. They could see Alison and Vincent inside, eyes transfixed by the screen. To be discreet, they did some last minute preparation. Eunice pulled her hair out of her ponytail, covering her face. She refused to part with her witch's hat and its secret contents, so she put on Anya's jacket. Anya carried Eunice's bag containing her money, and Shelly rolled the skirt of her vampire costume up into her Hopkins sweatshirt, now in a sweatshirt and black leggings instead of a halloween costume. Anya wore a Hopkins hat Eunice had taken from the lost and found. She arranged her hair so that her face was shadowed and hard to make out.

"We're ready," Anya whispered.

"OK," Eunice said. "Where's our hiding place and when do we drench them?"

"THEM?" I thought we were only going to drench Alison!" Shelly exclaimed.

"The more the merrier!" Anya said happily. Shelly thought about this carefully, then agreed to drench both of them.

"Anyway, back on topic," Shelly said. "I say we pretend we're in line to take pictures. When it's our turn and the picture lady turns to get the photos out, I'll 'bunny ear' Eunice -"

"HEY!" Eunice yelled.

"SSSSSHHHH. Besides, it's the only way the plan will work." Anya nodded in agreement. "As I was saying," Shelly continued, "I'll bunny ear Eunice but actually be pressing the trigger of the gun. Then the water will shoot out and you know…"

"HAHHAHAHHAHA! POTATO SHEEEP! I LOVESSSS IT!" Eunice and Anya said in perfect unison. Shelly smiled deviously.

"Wonderful," she said, giving her most evil grin possible. Risking Alison's wrath had never been more exciting.


	13. Part 3 Chapter 3

Eunice, Anya, and Shelly stood in the line for pictures, looking _very_ innocent. They were definitely not going to cause havoc and possibly widespread mayhem in the soggiest way possible. The movie was in the Gym with the photobooth, but it would be shut down due to the long line. There were only ten minutes for the three to proceed with their ingenious plan.

They were now the next in line, waiting behind Faye and her friends, who Anya unashamedly wrinkled her nose at. The photographer was struggling to keep Faye's wings in the picture. Every time the whole expanse of the wings were seen, Faye's friends couldn't fit. In the end, Faye finished her picture, and it was their turn. Eunice giggled loudly, and stumbled into the photo booth.

"Sheep!" Eunice exclaimed. Unnoticed, behind them was a group of girls who were staring at them.

"Smile?" asked the camerawoman.

Anya and Eunice positioned themselves in front of the camera.

In the movie, a large gelatinous blob was prowling behind a poor unsuspecting girl. The crowd went "OOOOOOH" as the main character's best friend was revealed not to be just an ordinary girl, but a ghoul.

Shelly stood behind Eunice and Anya, ready to perform the bunny ears.

"Come to the front, you're too short to be behind them," the photographer said, motioning to Shelly to stand in the front.

"I will, wait," Shelly desperately tried to delay.

The villainous jelly loomed over the girl's shoulder. She was talking to the main character, both with their backs towards their demise.

"Eunice, there's some lint on your hat," Shelly reached toward the trigger of the hidden gun.

The jelly reached toward the girl.

Shelly's fingers closed around the trigger, pulling it back all the way.

The blob was positioned over its victims, ready to plunge downwards and seal their fates.

A stream of water squirted out of Eunice's hat. (Judging by the cursing, some water dripped onto her head, too.)

The blob enveloped the boy and girl, and the stream of water hit Alison square in the back of her dress. She let out a little shriek of surprise as the cold water trickled down her back. At the noise, Vincent turned around, just to receive a faceful of water himself. Anya cackled evilly as chaos erupted. Eunice was cussing her head off and trying to pull off her hat, while Shelly had gone trigger-happy and was joyfully squirting everyone in the room. Vincent threw himself in front of Alison, shielding her from further blasts. Everyone else was screaming and ducking as Shelly refilled the water gun and Anya swiveled Eunice's head around to aim. Eunice pointed out their enemies in the crowd. Andrew, Ben, Brian, Jerry and Chengqi were soon very wet, their hair plastered to their faces. Alison got out from under her chair and pulled Vincent towards the door, trying to escape. Vincent's suit was now soggy and dripping, his pirate hat somewhere on the floor. He gave Eunice, Shelly, and Anya one last glare before he left the room with Alison. The crowd was panicking, some crouched under their chairs, some trying to squeeze through the door behind Vincent and Alison. Soon, everyone was funneled at the entrance, trying to push each other out of the way to escape un-drenched. Seizing the opportunity, Eunice, who had pulled the gun out of her hat, squirted the masses, sparing only those who deserved to remain dry. After she had passed her judgement, she, Anya, and Shelly ran into the girl's locker room.

They sat there for five minutes, realizing the full magnitude of what they had done.

"We're dead."

"You think anyone saw us?" Eunice asked.

"I don't think so… I hope so…" Shelly responded.

"THAT'S THE LEAST IMPORTANT THING!" Anya yelled. "Do you think I can still take everyone's candy through blackmail?"


	14. Part 3 Chapter 4

Breathless, Alison and Vincent burst from M1, Alison still holding Vincent's hand.

"So," she said, looking at him like he was a whole new person.

Vincent quickly removed his hand from hers. He started to remove his wet coat to make the sudden movement seem more natural. Under his suit, he was wearing his white collared shirt and tie, which miraculously weren't wet.

"We need to talk." Vincent wrung out the sleeves of his suit.

"Yeah, probably."

Alison pulled out her phone and checked the time to avoid looking at Vincent's ugly face. It was 6:00. The social would end at 7:30.

"First of all, your friends have problems."

"That, I can agree with." Alison smiled.

"I also want to do a number of bad things to them for what they did to us."

Alison frowned. "It was just a joke. A stupid, irritating, infuriating joke, maybe, but still a joke. "

"I don't care. Look at yourself."

Alison's black dress hung limp and wet, the lace clinging to the lining. Her black boots were pretty much ruined, and her socks were damp too. Vincent looked even more miserable with his hair drooping downwards and his soggy suit in his arms.

Alison burst out laughing. His head looked so _thin_ with none of his hair poofing out like usual.

Vincent was still frowning.

"Honestly, they treat me better than you used to, so you have no right to be mad at them," Alison defended. Even if they were stupid midgets determined to ruin her relationship with Vincent. "You would be all cold some days, and social on others."

Vincent actually looked remorseful.

"Sorry, I guess,"Vincent said. "I have...problems."

Alison grinned evilly. She took out her phone and went to the Camera app.

"Say that again."

"Say what?" Vincent asked.

"Vincent! You know what I mean!"

"I have problems?"

Alison stopped recording and immediately went to Hangouts to send the video to her friends. Then she realized she was still giving them the cold shoulder. Her smile disappeared.

"Not like that, I mean," Vincent blabbered on, not noticing. "Like problems at home."

"Oh," said Alison, her voice detached. She couldn't even really remember why she was mad at them, besides them being mad at her.

Oh, right. They had obsessively shipped her with Vincent until she thought he would hate her for life. But he was standing next to her right now, so the damage hadn't been irreparable.

"So," Vincent said, regaining Alison's attention. "Your friends."

"I don't know what you think, but they're _ ." (The previous phrases are unprintable due to their profanity.)

Alison frowned at him.

"They are. I have half a mind to report them right now."

"No," Alison said immediately. If she hadn't gone to the social with Vincent, the whole water gun affair wouldn't have happened. Did that make _her_ responsible for half of the student population going home drenched?

"Alison, they squirted us with a water gun during the middle of a school-organized social. And you're defending them?"

"N-"Alison paused. "Yes, actually."

"I'm still mad at them, and I'm going to give it to them when they stop ignoring me," she told him. "But I'm not mad enough to condemn them to at least a month's worth of detentions each. At least not yet."

Vincent sighed. "Alison, you're too nice."

"No, I just have friends that I actually care about."

"Are you implying I don't have friends?" Vincent asked her, a dangerous edge to his voice.

"Yes. Name five people you know that you consider friends."

Vincent rattled off a list of boys.

"Yes, but you don't care about them. Have you met up with them over the summer? Gotten them gifts for their birthdays?"

"No, but-"

Alison stopped him with a withering glare.

Vincent withered.

"Anyway," he said, now desperate to change the topic,"We're wet and soggy and the social doesn't end till seven thirty."

"I would call someone to pick me up, but my dad and sister went to pick up my mom from the airport. She's coming back from Korea today, and the plan was for him to be at home when I came back from the social."

"I'm going home on the bus, and my mom only let me come to the social if she didn't have to pick me up."

Alison sighed.

"So we're both going to be soggy for at least an hour longer."

She and Vincent headed out towards the field, away from the crowd. The teachers were trying to get everyone under control and restart the events. Vincent found a fallen social poster advertising donuts on a string outside the bandroom, and Alison carried it over to the expanse of grass that was surrounded by the track. She put it down and sat on it before Vincent could, leaving him to sit on the muddy turf. He glared at her.

Alison promptly looked the other direction. A cold breeze passed them, and she shivered.

Vincent took his soggy wet coat and placed it on her shoulders.

Alison plopped it on his head in response.

Vincent decided against putting it back on Alison.

They sat in silence for awhile, watching as Mr. Conbae herded a bunch of people out of the band room. Judging by their reluctance to leave the room and the pitch of Conbae's yelling, they had tried to take shelter from the water-gunners in the back room, resulting in two school cellos being stampeded. The cellos were fine, but the same couldn't be said about the poor people who had gotten pinned under the fallen instruments.

"So, have you gotten in trouble with Conbae yet?" Alison asked Vincent.

"Nope. Why would I? I'm a good student, remember?"

Alison tried not to snort. "Yeah right."

"Well, at least I'm not _scared_ of him."

Alison flared her nostrils at him. "Conbae is one of the most terrifying beings on this earth."

"He's just a band teacher."

Alison's eyes widened so large her irises were surrounded by a ring of white.

" _Just a band teacher?_ He's so creepy, with his thin head. His voice is so _odd_ too, and he always _looks_ at people in that weird way."

Vincent gave her a look.

"So you're scared of, hmm, let's see, Mr. Conbae, spiders, figs, boba, Chengqi, and Shelly on a sugar high?"

"Also Anya, when she's armed with grapes." Alison shuddered at the thought.

Vincent laughed.

"I can protect you, don't worry."

Alison elbowed him.

"I don't need protection."

They continued talking for half an hour, Alison grudgingly giving Vincent space to sit on their makeshift mat.

The social was definitely going better than Alison thought it would go. Despite her friend's attempts to ruin her night, she and Vincent were actually talking without insulting each other(that much). It was almost as if they were friends. Alison mentioned this to Vincent.

Vincent gave her a look.

"Of course we're friends. We wouldn't have gone to the social together if we weren't." he said.

"Well, you spend most of your time being rude, so I wasn't really sure." Alison replied.

"Eh. It's too hard to try and not insult you. You're just too insultable."

"Yeah, I don't think we can call each other _friends_."

"What, you want to be my _girl_ friend?" Vincent asked her smugly. "You said you liked me last year, do you still like me now?"

Alison's heart raced. She couldn't tell him. Not like this. She wrinkled her nose.

"Ugh, I meant we're not friends. Not yet, anyway." she told him.

She put her phone back into her bag. She noticed the time.

41

"It's 7:00 already! We have thirty minutes," she announced to Vincent.

"We have to go to M2 now." Vincent told her.

"Why?"

"Well, they probably finished putting all the stuff back after the shooting..."

How was he supposed to make up a pretence to lure Alison to the gym to dance?

"...There are those carnival games, and you get candy if you play." Vincent finished.

"Let's go," Alison agreed immediately, grabbing her stuff and standing up. Anya wasn't the only one who liked to hoard candy.

Vincent got up with much groaning and complaining, and together they started to walk towards M2.


	15. Part 3 Chapter 5

Meanwhile, Anya, Shelly, and Eunice were making their quick retreat to the parking lot, hopefully evading punishment. They turned a corner, ready to leave the scene of the crime. They were confronted by Madame Chabot, Mr. Benton, and Mr. Conbae. Their greatest fears.

"Dears," Madame Chabot asked. "You must know about the unfortunate shooting, _oui?"_

"Yea…" Anya said.

She showed the footage from the security camera. It showed three girls with the clothing they had previously worn as disguises, and they were shooting through a water gun. The clothing they were currently wearing wasn't recognizable, as the threesome had changed back into their real costumes now, and the disguises were thrown on the gym floor. But as Eunice looked at the footage closely she saw... - _the gunners weren't them._

Not only were the shooters two African - American girls and one White girl, there was not a single witch hat in sight. The same realization came to the rest of them.

Suddenly, it hit Anya. It WAS them. Clearly the witch hat wasn't visible, because the photos were taken near a black background, and the footage was in black and white. This was a sorter camera, used during times of segregation and the 1980's to detect blacks from going into only-white areas, and vice versa. So Anya and Shelly, who were Indian, were shown as Africans in the camera. And Eunice, who was Chinese, was shown as an American. Hopkins was pretty old, and it was likely that they hadn't replaced their cameras. Clearly the teachers didn't know, and since they had switched clothing, they were practically unrecognizable.

"So do you know these girls?" Mr. Benton asked. Since only Anya knew, Shelly and Eunice didn't know if this was a test to see if they were lying, or if Benton really didn't know. Anya spoke up.

"No." Anya lied. "But I did see some of these people. I think they ran off into the Gym." Anya added, to buy them some time. The gym was the farthest place from the parking lot.

"Thank you. Also, five of my music stands seems to have been stolen by a white blob. Please notify me if you know the culprit." Mr. Conbae said, and they headed to the Gym.

No one had to tell Eunice and Shelly what to do after that. It was spontaneous. _RUN._

Later they stopped at some random house for a drink, and Anya explained what happened. Eunice and Shelly looked satisfied and picked up the candy they had dropped running.

After half an hour, Shelly looked at the time. 8:31. Over an hour after the social ended. Shelly's eyes widened. This definitely wouldn't end well. She explained everything to the two and showed them her watch. Suddenly, Eunice exploded in laughter.

"YOU POO!"

Anya rolled her eyes. Typical Eunice, making jokes even in the most crucial moments.

"You forgot to adjust to Daylight Savings Time, you constipato. If we run, we may reach at least at 7:40, and our parents may not be so pissed off."

And so the three friends ran off into the night.

Again.

Vincent was still mad at them, even while eating candy in M1.

All of them.

Anya, the annoying one whose mission was solely to get candy and ruin people's lives. She was not someone to mess with, loyal only to friends, animals and above all, candy. Unfortunately, she also had excellent spying skills.

Shelly, the 'seemingly' quiet and obedient one. Looks could be deceiving. She was the most reasonable of the three, and yet somehow the least reasonable. Once you were her enemy, you were her enemy forever and she would notoriously track you down and pull annoying pranks.

Eunice, the smart one. Sure, she had passed the difficult 80-question science bowl test. Sure, she had all honors. Sure, she had A's in all her subjects. But there was a wide difference between smartness and common sense and wisdom.

Now, the million-dollar question. How were _they_ Alison's most valued friends? Surely a girl like her would have better acquaintances.

But then, like Alison had said before, perhaps he was just salty that he didn't have any valuable company.

Vincent was with Alison in the M2. He had to do it now. Ask her. Now.

"Hey, um, you wanna dance now?"

Alison whirled around to face him. Did that really just come out of his mouth?

"I know you probably don't want anyone to see us together, but it's gonna be dark, and no one's inside, so coul-"

Alison cut him off by grabbing his hand and pulling him into the dance room.


	16. Part 3 Chapter 6

Behind a bush outside of the locker room entrances, a boy considered the small screen of the iPhone in front of him. He was watching a video that he had taken an hour before, a video that had the power to save or condemn those captured in it.

The boy replayed the video, watching the sequence of familiar events unfold once more.

"Die! Die!" yelled a tiny Shelly on the boy's screen, frantically swivelling a tiny Eunice's neck to aim a water gun protruding from Eunice's hat. The tiny Eunice exploded into a stream of cursing as water seemed to spill on her head as the gun was passed to Anya. A recognizable girl in a black lace dress shrieked as she was shot in the back by the stream of water. A tall boy in a dark suit ducked down with the girl in the dress and they both disappeared from view. The crowd began to move, carrying the person recording the video with the mob. The screen went black and only the screams of the mass of people were heard. Then the video ended entirely.

The boy began to walk towards the donuts on a string booth, his phone still in his outstretched hand. As he passed under the illumination of an open classroom door, his face became visible in contrast to the shadows. No, he wasn't interested in those girls. Just the girl. As he replayed the footage, he knew where the two had went. And if his extensive collection of romance novels were correct, something was going to happen in the Gym that would be worth filming.

Time to sabotage. Wait, no, that wasn't the right word. _Time to BLACKMAIL._ He thought.


	17. Part 3 Chapter 7

Meanwhile, the dance continued. Everyone had left to go home, and Alison and Vincent were alone. Alison blushed as she had never blushed before. Vincent's hair, somehow no longer wet and poofy was picture-perfect. Alison's dress had looked even prettier now since the shooting.

 _Is this a dream?_

Vincent, ever the gentleman, put his hands on Alison's shoulders ever so gently. A waltz, nowhere to be heard, played whimsical and wonderful in their minds. Simultaneously, they danced. Their hearts and minds were in rhythm, and their heartbeats seemed to coordinate with their movements. Vincent twirled Alison around, and the moon shone through the windows of the Gym. All was lost.

The moment was surreal. Alison could see nothing but Vincent and his neatly combed hair. Vincent could see nothing but Alison and her perfect dress. The moon's light was even brighter and a spotlight of silver gleam shone on the couple as Vincent and Alison took two steps back and twirled again. And then the two stopped abruptly. Vincent was so immersed in the feeling of love. He looked straight into Alison's eyes. Alison was growing emotional and a single tear ran down her cheek. She looked straight into Vincent's eyes. Vincent touched Alison's cheek and tilted his head sideways. He came closer to Alison's face. Alison's face came closer to his. Their lips were close. So close…

Alison closed her eyes. Vincent pulled her into an embrace, and the two were entranced, ready for the kiss, their noses only inches apart...

The lights flickered on, and an evil cackle echoed through the gym. A heavy, deflated dumpling costume was thrown across the room.

"You weren't expecting me, were you?" laughed the boy, holding a video of the dance up on his iPhone. "And Alison, if you don't ditch Vincent and go on a date with me, I'll show this video to the entire school!" He threw his head back and laughed.

"Alison…" Vincent whispered. "Don't leave me…"

"What can I do?" Alison whispered back. Today had been so emotional, but did it have to come down to this? She wept silently in Vincent's arms. He brushed away her tears, perhaps for the last time. Their relationship had been so short, perhaps even ruined.

The blackmailer seemed unaffected by his actions.

"Please don't," Alison said through sobs. "Chengqi."


End file.
